Fungii.com

The Truth is right in here, baby

The Future Shop has the X-Files boxed sets on sale for $19.99 each. With such a good price, I ran out and picked up the last 5 sets to complete my collection [5-9]. I threw in the X-Files movie just to make it really complete and the total came to something like $116.54. Which is a great deal considering these boxed sets were much more expensive when they first came out [$113.99 each?].

They also had the Millennium boxed sets on sale for the same price, $19.99. Great series, but I've seen all the episodes already and I just couldn't afford more DVDs. They also have the Roswell boxed sets on sale for the same price. Never watched that show so I have no idea if they're worth it.

DLM Season 3?

I came across the first two episodes of Dexter Season 2 today. Tempting, tempting, but no. Movie Central airs Dex in HD, so I'd rather just wait and watch it in 1080i or whatever. Makes you wonder how these things get leaked though. I can only imagine it was ripped from a DVD given out to a journalist for reviewing before the next season begins. I know they did this with the first 5 episodes of the second season of Dead Like Me. Which was a good idea, as I thought the first five ep's of that season were probably the best.

Speaking of Dead Like Me, I hear they are going to film a movie of the show! [Direct to video] That's great, DLM is one of my favourite shows! Unfortunately, Mandy Patinkin [Rube] won't be in it. Nor will Laura Harris [Daisy], they are recasting the role of Daisy. Which is too bad, I wish they would just bring in another character like they did with Betty » Daisy. Anyway, this might lead to a resurrection of the series and a season three, which would rock. As long as they have Ellen Muth as George and some solid writing, I'm down with it.

Another one of my favourite shows, Wire in the Blood, is back with Season 5. I had completely forgotten about this one, I wasn't even sure it was coming back for another season. A very nice surprise, I'll have to check it out.

Durham County

The other series I've been watching as of late is Durham County, another show airing on Movie Central. This one is also a "serial killer" type police procedural but is quite different from Dexter. It's a lot more serious than Dexter, not very much black humour. And you know who the perp is from the very beginning, but that's what make it so interesting as the cop chasing the killer has a lot of the same flaws as the killer himself. All the characters have "skeletons in the closet", they are all very flawed, kind of reminds me of Jane Tennison from Prime Suspect. The acting is very good, particularly Hugh Dillon as Mike Sweeny. I didn't realize where I heard that name before until I found out he's the lead singer of the group "The Headstones"! Hard to believe, as he's about as from from a rock star in this as you can get, with his shaved head and playing a cop and all. Justin Louis plays Ray Prager, the bad guy and he's really good too. It is a Canadian production, but that shouldn't discourage you from watching this as it's really well made. There are only six episodes and new ones air every Monday on Movie Central.

Dexter

Movie Central has been replaying the first season of the Showtime series Dexter lately, which has been great for me as I never got to see this series when it first ran. And they are showing it in sequence, one episode every weekday. I wasn't sure if I would like this one very much as the premise is way out there - the "hero" of the show is Dexter, a serial killer. That's right, you're expected to feel sympathetic towards a mass murderer. But the funny thing is, it works. I don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen this yet, but there are some mitigating factors that make his character a little more palatable. And it's funny as hell, a lot of really demented, black humour. It's based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. The main character is played by Michael C. Hall [Six Feet Under] with Julie Benz [Darla from Buffy] and Jennifer Carpenter [Exorcism of Emily Rose]. There are only 12 episodes in the first season. And if you don't have Movie Central or Showtime, it comes out on DVD in August. The second season starts in October, hopefully Movie Central will continue to carry it. I just watched episode six, so they should be finished this run by next Monday? The first episode is simply called "Dexter", so if you want to start watching this, that's the one to start with. And you really need to watch this in order, as each episode leads to the next. I wasn't that impressed by the first episode, but by the second one, I was hooked.

L&O:CI Continuity Error

Last week's episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent
"Rocket Man" had an obvious continuity error. At start of the show, they show a woman answering her hotel door where her door handle is on the right. When they show the police entering her room immediately afterwards, the door handle is on the left.

John Tortorella

After the Tampa Bay Lightning lost game 5 of their series to the New Jersey Devils [3-0], TB coach John Tortorella held a news conference where he tells a reporter off. Rather funny, I like how the CBC doesn't censor their broadcasts.

Fuck Da Eagles

I was watching a bit of tonight's Eagles/Saints NFL playoff game, when the cameraman zoomed in on this girl during a break. They had the camera on her for a good five seconds while her shirt clearly says "Fuck Da Eagles". Sorry about the capture, I couldn't get a pic where her shirt was flat so you could see what it said clearly, but believe me, at 1080i it can be read very easily.

Update: made a better capture - you can see it now!

I also uploaded a short clip to YouTube - didn't turn out very well, you can barely read it. Oh well.

TCM vs. AMC

I watched 3 films in the last couple of weeks that had similar themes, namely facial disfigurement/transplants. I think I recorded them all off of TCM, too, which is such a great channel. They show their films in the original aspect ratio, uncensored, without commercials and their "station identifier" only pops up a few times for a few seconds during the show. Not only that, but Robert Osbourne comes on at the beginning [and end] of many showings and gives some background and insight on the film you are about to see. They are obviously great fans of the medium.

Contrast this with AMC, a channel I've grown to despise since it joined Shaw's lineup a month or two ago. For everything TCM does right, AMC finds a way to do it wrong. They have a large, annoying station identifier in the corner of the screen at all times during the film. Their films are almost always pan and scan. Their films are the "edited for TV" versions. I tried watching Exorcist II [III?] the other night and when this girl gets her shirt wet, they actually had the image blurred out so you couldn't see through her wet shirt! Ridiculous. The worst are the "commercials". AMC is actually commercial-free, like TCM, but they break from the film roughly every ten fucking minutes to show you the same crap over and over again. It's so-called "normal people" quoting movies they love or idiotic nobodies talking about how they somehow contributed to dreck like "Gigli". It's so fucking annoying and unnecessary. They also tend to show a lot of recent, mainstream films that I've already seen and have no interest in seeing again. TCM, on the other hand, shows a lot of older films that I've never seen and a lot of smaller art or independent films that never got much exposure. I especially like the films they've been airing on Friday nights on TCM Underground. [flash site] Good stuff.

Sony KDS-50A2000

My old 27" Sony Trinitron from 1990 was starting to show it's age as of late. Most notably by displaying a series of horizontal bars across the screen that were driving me crazy. Although they were only visible, mostly, in dark scenes and in areas that had about 20% brightness. I thought it might be some kind of interference or a ground loop, but after much experimenting with different video sources through different inputs and different power outlets, I was unable to make the problem disappear. Oh well, 16 years of service for one TV ain't bad.

So I did some research on TVs and while I would have liked to get the 40" XBR2 LCD model, I ultimately decided to go with the 50" SXRD rear-projection model. It was cheaper, had a bigger screen and had a native display of 1080p. I went to Future Shop and got their 12 months interest free [somewhat] payment plan. They actually charge a $60 financing charge, so it's not totally interest free. The price I got it for was $2535, a bit less than the $2999 MSRP. [I printed out this forum thread and when I showed it to them, they agreed to sell it to me for that price] I managed to get it to fit in my Vibe and drive it home, although I had to lay it flat because it was a few inches too tall.

I tried scanning for HD channels using the TV's built in tuner, but all I got was one, Discovery HD. It looked great, but obviously I would like more than one HD channel. So I went to Shaw yesterday and picked up their HD cable box/PVR. Now I get about 10 HD channels. Not bad, but I hope they get more soon. Standard definition channels vary greatly in picture quality, some are fine and some are completely unwatchable. Anologue or digital [480i] doesn't seem to matter much, I guess it all depends on the source. DVDs look great, not as good as the HD channels, but much better than any 480i TV channels. Although you can notice differences from disc to disc. Spiderman2 looks sharp and crisp, but Apocalypse Now looks kinda soft. DIVX stuff through my RJ-Tech unit looks pretty good, much better than on my old TV, although it varies from source to source. The last episode of Heroes looked fantastic.

I've heard of the green blob defect with these TVs, but so far I haven't had any problems of that nature. I also did the LPF fix, although I can't say it made any visible difference.

I also had to spend a small fortune on cables. Two component cables for my DVD players. Then another component cable for my PS2, although I'm not sure that was worth it cause PS2 games look rather shitty on this set. My cable box came with a set of component cables, but by that time all my component inputs were spoken for! So I had to purchase an HDMI cable to get it connected. The guy at Future Shop was trying sell me an uber-expensive Monster Cable HDMI cable, but when I decide on a cheaper one because cabling shouldn't make that big a difference with digital signals over a short run, he threw a fit, literally. Totally spazzed out. Anyway, I went with the cheaper cable and it works fine, although it's too short and I have to keep the damn box right by my TV now.

GB-PVR Icons

GB-PVR doesn't come with icons for any of the TV channels, you have to assemble those yourself. I got a bunch from LyngSat Logo, a pretty awesome resource for creating a collection of station logo icons. You need to put the icons in the proper directory - mine is D:\GB-pvr\media\ChannelLogos but I think if you used the default install directory for GB-PVR, it would be something like: C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\media\ChannelLogos. Anyway, you also need a text file named TV Channels List.txt that associates each icon with a station number. The entries follow this template:
CFCN 3 CFCN - where channel 3 is associated with a file called 3 CFCN.jpg.

Here's my collection of icons for Shaw Calgary, it's not complete but it has most of the analogue channels that you can record with a tuner card. The ABC logo is a bit lame with the blue background, I should change that. My TV Channels List.txt is in there too.

StationIcons.rar

GB-PVR

Last weekend I got a bit fed up with the "Scheduler" software that came with my Hauppauge tuner card. There's no way to set the quality for recordings in the damn thing, it goes by the last setting in the WinTv program. Well, last time I used it I must have done a VCD recording, because my scheduled recordings since then have been total shit looking. I was going to try hacking something together, but I heard good things about the GB-PVR software and it's free, so I thought what the hell, I'll give it a shot.

Wow, it's a pretty cool program, not perfect [more than a few bugs] but I'm so impressed I really want to put together a seperate, full-fledged HTPC, instead of running it off and on from my only PC that I do pretty much everything on. It downloads TV listings from a website like Zap2It and then you use those listings as an on-screen guide to see what's on and to schedule recordings. The menus are navigable via the Hauppauge remote as well as from the PC mouse and keyboard. You can download or create "skins" to customize the look of the program. There are also tons of plugins to add even more functionality, like the weather plugin that gives you your local weather forecast at the push of a button. You can also listen to radio, net-radio, mp3's, cds, watch divx movies, DVDs, rip DVDs and re-encode them... the list is endless!

[you can see a little graphical glitch in this screenshot - the current time is displayed overtop "Main Menu" - there are a lot of little niggles like that in there but it's still a great product!]

Another thing I found out about during this little experiment is the program comskip, that you can run during recording or immediately afterwards via a batch file [PostProcessing.bat]. It analyses the video file to locate the commercials and then you can run a program like cuttermaran [via another batch file, comclean2.bat] to actually snip out the commercials, leaving you with a pristine, commercial-free recording. I had my doubts that this would work, but with the few recordings I've done, it worked perfectly, I couldn't even tell where most of the commercials were snipped out. Awesome! Beats the hell out of removing them manually.

I did have a couple problems right off the bat though. The first was with the viewing window for the main menu. My desktop is set to 1280x1024 but my video card only outputs 1024x768 to my TV, so my desktop is not entirely viewable on my TV's "cloned" display. I got around this by "locking" the display on my TV to the upper left corner of my desktop so it wouldn't pan anymore. Then I edited GB-pvr's shortcut on my desktop so that it displays in the upper left corner, in a window sized at 1024x768. [D:\GB-pvr\GBPVR.exe -pos:0,0,1024,768] Now GB-pvr's window fills my TV's entire screen.

But the problem with that setup is that you also see the window's frame displayed on the TV, which looks pretty lame. I tried the -noframe switch to get rid of the frame, which worked but I lost the use of my remote that way. The iremote software uses the window frame's title to translate commands from the remote depending what program is running. But with the noframe attribute set, the window essentially has no name, therefore it refuses to obey commands for that window. I think you can get around this limitation by getting the window's handle instead and using that to translate commands from the remote, but I found a simpler hack. I simply positioned the window further and further "offscreen" until the frame was no longer visible -> D:\GB-pvr\GBPVR.exe -pos:-5,-27,1024,768. This almost worked, except then the bottom of the frame came into view. A problem easily fixed simply by increasing the size of the window -> D:\GB-pvr\GBPVR.exe -pos:-5,-27,1024,778. It worked, no more frame on my TV!

Another problem which became readily apparent was the on screen display [OSD] used when watching live TV. It was mostly offscreen, I could only see about the top half. I was trying to find out how to reposition the damn thing, but the fix was even simpler. I just had to set an element in an XML file [config.xml] from 1.05 to 1.00 and my OSD magically reappeared where it should be.
<HorizontalZoom> 1.00 </HorizontalZoom>

Ghost Story/Circle of Fear

It seems like just about every TV show [old and new] is being put out on DVD these days, but there is one short-lived series from 1972 I would like to see on DVD that currently isn't. It was called Ghost Story during its first season and Circle of Fear afterwards. It had a total of 23 one-hour episodes. I can't remember many of the episodes as I only saw it when I was a kid, but I do remember it being really, really creepy. But then again I was just a kid, so maybe I wouldn't be as impressed as an adult. I do remember the one episode, I don't remember what it was called, but it was the one about the little girl with the dollhouse that she uses to control the people in her "real" house. That one was cool. It seems to have a few people that remember it fondly on the IMDB messageboard, not bad for a series that has hardly aired at all for 34 years! I wish I could at least find the theme song somewhere, I can remember it being a good, haunting theme.

Harlan Ellison and Richard Matheson are listed as writers and William Castle was the producer. And some notable actors played in some of the episodes: Jason Robards, Geena Rowlands, Meg Foster, James Franciscus, Karen Black, Melvyn Douglas, Jodie Foster, Richard Mulligan, Jackie Cooper, Mariette Hartley, Hal Linden, Rip Torn, Geraldine Page, Angie Dickinson, Janet Leigh, Martin Sheen, Tyne Daly, Susan Dey and David Soul. Wow, not bad for such a short series!

MoH - Jennifer

This week entry in the Masters of Horror series was Dario Argento's "Jennifer". Not bad, a million times better than last week's embarrassment by Tobe Hooper. The story was a little pedestrian, at least in the way it went exactly the way I thought it would. Not much in the way of surprises. And there weren't many cinematic flourishes that Argento is known for, the cinematography was mostly unremarkable. On the other hand, Jennifer's makeup was appropriately gruesome and some of the "dinnertime" sequences were quite effective. So I guess you could say I was mildly disappointed, but reasonably entertained. Hoping next week's ep shows a little more originality though.

Masters of Horror - 3

I just finished watching the 3rd episode of Masters of Horror, directed by Tobe Hooper. Holy shit! That has to be the most unwatchable, putrid piece of shit excuse for entertainment I have ever seen - I can't believe I managed to sit through the whole execrable thing! The acting was bad, the story was vapid, none of the dialogue was at all interesting, the camera work was simply irritating with the constant "jittering for effect" assaulting my corneas. Robert Englund was as obnoxious as ever. So, so bad. Next week is the Argento episode, oh god I hope it's better than this thing.

Comparatively, last week's "rat" episode was ok. Not as good as the first one, which really rocked, but at least it was mildly entertaining. I just wished it would have added up to more at the end. It was one of those show's where the end leaves you scratching your head, as in "that story went absolutely nowhere!". But at least it didn't make you want to smash your TV in with Robert Englund's fat, ugly face like tonight's EP did.

TCM - Charade

Watched a few movies on TCM since it got added to Shaw. I tried watching "Farenheit 451" last Sunday, but the picture kept cutting out with "bad signal" and horrible digital artifacting. Since it's an analog channel, I assume this problem is occuring between Shaw and TCM. I hope they fix it soon, this is the best channel in Shaw's lineup by far.

I did get to watch "Charade" last Friday for the first time. What a great movie! Pretty hokey, but what the hell, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn were so good together. Having Walter Matthau, George Kennedy and James Coburn in your supporting cast doesn't hurt either. I so want to get the DVD for this title, but the Criterion edition is pretty expensive with few extras and there's about a hundred other editions of this movie out there of dubious quality. [I guess it was in the public domain for awhile]

I already know an awful lot of people and until one of them dies I couldn't possibly meet anyone else.
Well, if anyone goes on the critical list, let me know.

TCM on Shaw!

Yesterday I noticed the channels on my set-top box were all screwed up, apparently Shaw decided to shuffle the channels around a bit. But it was for a good reason, as they added Turner Classic Movies to Channel 42 in Calgary. This seems like a pretty wicked channel too. First of all, they show the movies uninterrupted, no commercials! Another thing, it seems to have been added to the basic service, no extra cost. Also, they don't seem to have the constant "station identifier" thing in the bottom, right corner, it just pops up for a few seconds every once in awhile. And the movies are pretty good and varied. Last night they showed "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "Asphalt Jungle", "The Maltese Falcon" - the list is endless, really good movies that I've always wanted to check out. Makes the money I spend on digital channels seem a bit of a waste - they have nowhere as good a selection of movies, plus they ruin them with commercials and those shitty "station identifier" things. The only reason I got the digital channels was for Scream, which has turned out to be a big disappointment.

Master of Horror Ep 1

Just watched the first ep of Masters of Horror, the new anthology series of one hour "movies" airing on Showtime and carried on the digital channel Scream here in Canada. At first I thought they might have butchered this episode because they were showing commercials and Showtime is a premium channel without commercials, but they extended its playing time by 15 minutes so I'm pretty sure we got the whole thing. How was it? Great! I loved it, they didn't hold back with the gore, it was full on, unhibited horror, great stuff. At first it came off as a typical slasher movie, but it has enough twists and turns to keep you interested and it had great production values so it was a pleasure to watch. Good stuff. It was called "Incident on and off a Mountain Road" and was directed by Don Coscarelli of Phantasm fame.

The actress who plays Ellen [Bree Turner] in this episode, is she the same girl who was in a commercial, I think it was for Noxema [?], where she comes in her bedroom and her little dog has made a big mess, but she doesn't get mad cause her dog is so cute? Halfway through this show, I was like "It's the Noxema girl!!", but I can't find any listing for it in her bio on IMDB. It's driving me crazy!

From NY Newsday:

"How will the other "Masters of Horror" fare? Their results arrive on Showtime weekly, with "Dreams in the Witch-House" coming next Friday from Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator"), to be followed in November by hour efforts from Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento and Garris himself. In subsequent months, the makers include Japanese masters (Takashi Miike of "Audition"), '70s auteurs (Larry Cohen of "It's Alive") and the latest new-schoolers (Lucky McKee of the forthcoming "The Woods")."

From CNN:

"Garris' goal with the Showtime series was to provide a venue for directors to make, essentially, one-hour horror movies for television -- with no studio interference. "We wanted these filmmakers to do their movies, their way," he says. "The idea was to pull these people together, who founded this genre, and let them do the shows they've always wanted to do, with no restrictions, no second-guessing," confirms executive producer John Hyde."

From UGO:

"DON: I saw Led Zeppelin in the mid '70s and the guy next to me got hit in the head by Robert Plant's harmonica. That was pretty exciting."

Masters of Horror

Well I watched Rome last night, and it was pretty dull and lifeless. I sure hope Movie Central picks up this Showtime anthology series Masters of Horror. Sounds totally wicked!

HBO's Rome

Gonna check out the premiere of the HBO series Rome tomorrow on Movie Central. Looks like it could be good. It's co-produced with the BBC, who make some pretty damn good TV programmes.

You are on the Global Frequency

Just watched the Global Frequency pilot and I must say, not bad. I was prepared to be disappointed as there were so many people raving about this thing and I'm usually let down by al the hype. But all round, it was pretty decent. Good premise, good actors with the two leads having good chemistry together, decent effects, dialogue, story and tons of potential as a series. In a nutshell, it was fun to watch! So why did the WB never air it? I don't know. And their reaction to its release onto the Internets and subsequent buzz is rather disappointing.

"Whether the pilot was picked up or not, it is still the property of Warner Bros. Entertainment and we take the protection of all of our intellectual property seriously," Craig Hoffman, a company spokesman, told Wired. "While Warner Bros. Entertainment values feedback from consumers, copyright infringement is not a productive way to try to influence a corporate decision." Hoffman added that the pilot's unauthorized distribution is "unacceptable and illegal ... no matter what the underlying motives" and said the company hasn't ruled out taking legal action "when it comes to stopping the illegal distribution of our copyright material."

They should realize that every show, every fucking show, from the most popular to the most niche stuff, makes its way onto the net sooner or later. Whining about "copyright infringement" on a show that would most likely have been sitting on a dusty shelf unseen for the next fifty years if you had your way, is missing the point. The fact that most people who have seen the show [legally or not] have liked it if not loved it, means you have a potential hit on your hands. Which means you could make money on it. You could try airing the show on your network and with a little promotion, see how it does. Or you could stick your head back in the sand, whine about piracy and put it back on the shelf. I know what I would do.

Spy Marathon

Just watched another episode of "Spy", they finally got rid of the contestant that was failing all his missions. It's about time! This one was cool, they had two groups of three working on seperate missions tracking a "dead letter drop" but what made it interesting was that each team had a group of two working in an undercover mission against the third in their group. Utter betrayal, always a good thing! ;)

Looks like National Geographic Channel Canada is going to do a Spy marathon in July showing all the episodes in one run, so if you get the chance, check it out, this is a great show.

I have good news for you. July 16 and 17 is Spy Weekend on National Geographic Channel. Catch the full Spy series July 16 beginning at 12 p.m. ET (repeating at 5 pm ET) and July 17 at 12 p.m. ET (repeating at 5 pm ET). Other spy-related programming includes The Spying Game and Innovations: Spy Catchers. Please visit our schedule at www.nationalgeographic.ca/watch for more information.

Spy

I've watched a couple episodes of Spy, a BBC reality series where people are trained to be spies by real, former CIA and MI-6 agents. I thought this would be a hoot, a lot of fun, but I was struck by how intense and serious the "trainers" take this stuff. The first episode I saw was "undercover" where the candidates had to work in pairs using cover stories to work under cover. Some of them had to do a job interview where they had to convince an employer that they were professional photographers, even though they had no prior experience before the day of the interview. Talk about intense! And then, after going to a party and getting in a few drinks, they go home to sleep, only to be awakened in the middle of the night and interrogated by their trainers on their cover story! Ha, now that's tough because they interview your partner as well and if your stories don't match, you're busted. Tonight's show was on surveillance where the candidates had to follow a person around without being seen, and then clandestinely leave them a message. The thing is, the trainers' used the candidate's wives, boyfriends, best friends etc. as the people being followed, so it was incredibly hard for them to follow without being recognized. None of them got it quite right, one chick lost her mark, a couple got recognized, they all had problems. The trainers watch their every move, constantly evaluating them, it's really cool. I hope they re-air this series from the begining, I think I missed a bunch. It's on the National Geographic channel here in Canada.

In this factual entertainment reality series, 16 people from all walks of life are taught the secrets of spy tradecraft by former intelligence operatives from the CIA and FBI.
They undergo a rigorous regime of training in the real world, where candidates will be asked to try out their skills on real people and unsuspecting members of the public. They will have to infiltrate difficult environments and access confidential information, follow targets and mount complex surveillance operations on people and places.
Spy airs Saturdays at 8 pm ET

Ep's 17-18

Just watched the latest two ep's, so I'm all caught up on this show. What can I say, ep 18 was probably the worst piece of shit I've ever seen on television. The whole show was spent trying to justify torture. How fucking quaint. Oh, and the insinuation that anybody concerned about human rights is in cahoots with terrorists was just icing on the cake. How low can this show go? Pathetic.

Ep's 13 - 16

Almost caught up now, only two more ep's to go and I'll have viewed all the ep's aired so far this season. These ep's? Meh, not so good. You know when they shoot down the president's plane and your reaction is "Hey, what happened to Berooz?", then the writers on this show aren't reaching their audience. At least this audience of one. And what the hell did happen to our little terrorist wannabe? They storm the warehouse, supposedly to rescue Berooz, and we hear nothing about him being there or not. [Maybe I missed something?] Sure, getting Habib was the prime objective, but you would think rescueing the kid would be on their radar to a certain degree. Speaking of Berooz, they knew he did not likely have any pertinent information but they tortured his ass anyway. That's four [relatively] innocent people they've tortured this season, this time a kid no less. Is CTU supposed to be the "bad guy" this season? Or do the writers on this show not see how this constant torturing kinda makes CTU look like a buncha thugs? Or is this supposed to be some kind of satire on the whole war on terror thing? More political BS inserted into the storyline which I didn't care for. Chloe came back, woohoo! Scenes with Audrey and her husband were boring, as were the scenes with the prez and his spawn. Yawn. After looking like this show was getting its legs back, it stumbless again.

Ep's 11-13

Caught up on ep's 11-13 tonight. It's actually watchable at this point, with Driscoll and Sarah [?] gone. Since Sarah's gone, shouldn't they be recalling ol' potatoe-face at this point? They are running a little short-staffed with all these deaths, infiltrators and firings. So Tony was head of CTU for what, a whole five minutes? LOL, just long enough to lock horns with Curtis, then bam! Seeya, in comes Bitchelle, looking oh-so-hot, she must have been on standby at the 7-11 across the street. The death of Driscoll's daughter was pretty predictable. Loved the look Audrey gave Jack when he was torturing her husband, I think their little relationship is toast. Jack & Audrey that is. I like how Tony keeps telling Jack and Michelle "OK, you don't need me anymore, I'm just gonna leave now..." and they're all like "Noooo, Tonyyyy, we need you!!!". Buhaa, I think he's just playing them, he likes the attention. Oh, and what's with the torturing of innocent people this season? I think they're up to three so far, assuming Heller's son Richie wasn't hiding anything.

Ep 8-10

I just finished watching the next 3 episodes of 24, it's seemed to pick up a lot, finally! Most of which was due to the return of Tony Almaida. Damn, did he have some funny lines in ep 8.
"Jack, don't you think you've made me miss enough TV today?"
"Actually, I'm currently unemployed."
Buhaaa, too funny. Now if they could only bring back the rest of the cast from Season 3. The way people are dropping like flies on this show, maybe they will.

24 Seasons 3 & 4

*** may contain spoilers ***

After catching the first season of 24 on DVD [which is on sale at the Future Shop for $29.99, great deal!], I was hoping to eventually get the second season somewhere, as the first season was pretty wicked. Although I thought the whole instant amnesia part was prett lame. Supposedly it was based on director's Stephen Hopkins' real life experience, but it still seemed pretty farfetched to me. Anyhow, the Mystery channel was playing season 3 from the very start, so I thought what the hell, I'll watch that even though I haven't seen season 2 yet. Having watched the whole thing, I thought it was pretty good! There was a lot of humour in it, although I'm not sure if it was all intentional or not. There were so many soap-operish elements going on, it was kind of ridiculous. I thought Chappelle would eventually make the comment that "this place is like a goddamn soap opera!", but he never did. And it was kind of funny that hardly anybody seemed to obey Chappelle's orders, are all government agency's this dysfunctional? Over 24 hours, doesn't anybody get hungry, tired or have to go to the washroom? Not on this show. The presidential side of the show was pretty lame, but the CTU stuff more than made up for it. Had some good twists and turns in it too, they had me fooled with the Gael fake-out and the Chappelle hit. [I thought it would turn out to be fake!]

So I really liked Season 3, and I thought I'd continue on to Season 4, expecting the same kind of fun, suspensful entertainment. Ugh, am I ever disappointed, so far at least, I'm up to ep 7. All the old characters' are gone except for Jack and Chloe. Well, there's also the new president, but he ain't no David Palmer! All the new characters suck, I mean really suck. I hate Jack's new girlfriend. I hate the new head of CTU, Driscoll, not just the character but the actress who protrays her, Alberta Watson. She's horrible, seems to deliver all her lines through clenched teeth and it looks like she's reading them off a teleprompter. And I hate Heller, protrayed by William Devane, every moment he's on screen is pure torture. All the new CTU people are uninteresting. I also hate Heller's son Richard, whom CTU [and his dad!] seem to have no problem torturing for information, even though they only "think" he might be hiding something. And all the political BS they've injected into this show is just so irritating. Season 3 had a bit of this but it was easily ignored, Season 4 bangs you over the head with it so much it's impossible to ignore. This season has no suspense, no humour, it's mostly garbage so far. The terrorist family is about the only saving grace, they are so evil, they're actually a hoot to watch.

After hating this season so much, imagine my surprise when I go to the TWOP forums and everybody there seems to love it! Weird. And I hear this season is getting great ratings as well. Go figure. Oh well, I still have Season 2 to catch up on, and who knows, maybe Season 5 will be better. David Fury of Buffy fame is supposed to be a writer on next year's installment.

PC to TV Video

I've had my computer hooked up to my stereo and TV for awhile now and there has always been a problem with the video that I attributed to the long cable run from my comp to TV. Kind of vertcal distortion in the picture, rather subtle, but still noticeable and irritating. Anyway, last night I was watching some Star Trek the Next Gen that I had recorded earlier with my tuner card and I noticed the video was "letterboxed" a bit on all four sides. I thought it was a problem with my video card [MSI Ti 4200] so I went into the video settings to try and correct the problem. I was unable to find a fix. And with good reason, the reason it was "letterboxed" like that was because the tuner card had recorded it that way for some reason. I'm not sure if it's just a quirk of that channel [Spike] or if I need to adjust something in my capture software.

Later I tried watching some video from my comp >> TV but the screen on my TV remained black. Yet there was a picture displayed on my PC. I'm using the "clone" option on my video card to drive both displays. This was at fullscreen. When I restored the video to a windowed display, my desktop was displayed on my TV, but the video window remained black on TV, fine on computer! Weird. Eventually found the problem on this screen:
Display Properties>Settings>Advanced>GeForce Ti 4200>Full Screen Video
I had set "Full Screen Device" to disabled. After resetting it to "Secondary Device", I was able to view video on my TV again. But a couple things were different.

One: I can keep the video in a window on my comp and it will be displayed in fullscreen on my TV. Way cool, I don't have to change resolution to watch video on my TV anymore! And I still get to see my desktop fine when video isn't running or doesn't have focus.

Two: even better, no more vertical line distortion! I guess it wasn't my long cables after all, just the way my video card was driving the secondary display. Yowsa!

Friday the 13th The Series

I've been watching this television show lately, it airs just before I go to work, on Scream. What's great is that even if I miss a bit of the show, it re-airs just as I usually get back from work. Cool.

The show ran for three seasons ['87 - '90] and it is very much a precursor to shows like Buffy and the X-Files. The funny thing is, I never watched this show when it first aired for the same reason I never watched Buffy - I thought the movie[s] sucked. This TV series has nothing to do with the movie though, at least plotwise. Frank Mancuso jr. was the creator behind this show and he also made the Friday the 13th movies. There was supposed to be a tie-in with the movie at some point, but it never happened. I guess the title was supposed to draw in the horror fans.

What's great about this show are the plots, very twilight zone type of stuff. And the three leads are very good. [Holy shit did Mickey ever have BIG HAIR in the early episodes, very 80s] Having said that, it is a very low budget show and it shows. Very, very cheezy at times, but that's what makes it so much fun.

I just finished watching the two-parter "The Quilt of Hathor". That's right, the big bad is an ancient, accursed quilt. What could be more harrowing? The plot basically involves this quilt having magical properties that enable a person sleeping under the quilt to kill people through their dreams. The thing is, this quilt is wreaking havoc at a Pennitite colony. [guess they didn't want to get sued by Mennonites] And hilarity ensues. I mean this thing has a big pentagram sewn into it and this Pennitite lady is saying she thought there was something wrong with it. Lol, no shit, why would a religious person buy something like that in the first place? The men have these beards that you can plainly see are pieces of string with hair attached. You should hear the dialogue, it is so funny, all thee and thou, really bad. "Witchcraft in this town? Neeeeeever!" At the end, Ryan is chasing down the town elder who has been using the quilt to kill people. So what does he do? He drops to the floor, wraps the quilt around himself and begins to fall asleep and dream furiously! Has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV. Then they are both struggling for the quilt and the elder's daughter screams "Let it go!" So Ryan does, and the evil Pennitite goes flying out the third-floor window and does this wicked flip in the air before plunging to his death, clutching the Quilt of Hathor. Just classic.

So yeah, check this one out if you ever get the chance. It did have some interesting people involved. David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan and David Morse [???] all directed episodes. Sarah Polley and Jill Hennessy also make appearances. I really hope they put the whole series out on DVD someday, I'd buy it.

CSI: New York

I just tried to watch CSI: NY and gave up after only 10 minutes or so. Why, bad acting? Bad script? No, bad camerawork! Holy fuck, I think their cameraman has Parkinson's or something, brutal. Constantly shaking and moving around, unwatchable. I don't mind a little hand-held camerawork during special sequences, say when an officer is chasing a criminal or such. But the scene was just a static shot of two character's talking, absolutely no need for the jumpy cam. You think with all the money this series is making they could afford a fucking tripod. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the editing is equally as brutal. They don't hold a shot for more than one or two seconds at a time. I am not kidding, that static shot of two people talking must of had twenty fucking cuts. Long shot, closeup, two shot, back to long shot etc... Just for two people goddamn talking fer chrissake! Eeek! And it kept up like that in the following scenes, just cut, cut, cut. There must be a couple thousand cuts for each show. What the fuck were they thinking?

Speaking of CSI, I've been catching some of the repeats on Spike TV, they show two episodes back to back everyday, right after I get off work, very nice. After not watching this show for awhile, I forgot how good it is. I mean it's not Shakespeare or anything, but it's pretty good entertainment. Much better than this ridiculous CSI:NY abomination, and better than CSI:Miami, which I really disliked at first, but lately has been somewhat watchable. The thing I like about the original is that Grissom urges his underlings to not get emotionally involved, let the evidence speak for itself. [not that they always succeed in remaining emotionally detached, but at least he acknowledges that it would be best if they did] Whereas Horatio on CSI:Miami has a big chip on his shoulder and is out to nail any perp that crosses his path, the evidence is secondary. Which undermines the whole premise behind the CSI franchise, forensics¹. Otherwise, it's just another cop show.

Scream is back on Shaw in Calgary!

I found out today SCREAM is back on the Shaw cable lineup, channel 139. Woohoo, I love this channel! And it's free for November and December! Way cool, I just hope Shaw keeps it in their lineup from now on, even if we have to pay $1.99 a month for it. Last time they did the free preview, they turned around and pulled it from their lineup just as I was trying to subscribe to the damn thing. Here's the email I reeceived today:

Hi there,

As someone who is interested in watching SCREAM, you asked us to let you know when our channel would be offered on Shaw Digital Cable. We are excited to announce that SCREAM is returning to Shaw Digital Cable this weekend, just in time for you to catch our incredible Hallowe'en line-up! Current Shaw subscribers will enjoy a free preview of SCREAM during November and December.

We're glad to be back for our Shaw viewers! We hope you'll be tuning in this weekend for a fitting reunion. Horror classics such as Carrie, Poltergeist, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween are scheduled to keep you on the edge of your seat all weekend long. Contact your Shaw cable provider for subscription information and check out www.screamtelevision.ca for complete programming details.

Regards,
SCREAM Viewer Relations Department

Law & Order : CI

Wow, two weeks without posting on here! I'm losing it.

Just watched L&O:CI where you can vote on the fate of Nicole Wallace. I voted for her to live just because I thought that ending worked better for the episode. Kind of a gimmicky thing to do, but it was a good ep. Although they did keep the camera on Goren's face for a long time during the viewing of the Nicole interrogation. What was that all about? His expression never changed either, kinda weird.

Amazing Race in Calgary

Hey, The Amazing Race did a leg in Calgary, of all places. I haven't been watching this season, but I just might check out tonight's finale to see out what happens when they come to cowtown. They ride mountain bikes down the hill at COP, apparently. I've done that before, it ain't that big of a hill. They should have dragged them out to a real mountain bike hill, like the Little Elbow/Big Elbow run, now that would have been a challenge! :)

Update: I watched it, they rode downhill in the winter, in the snow! Ahh, I see now, a bit more difficult. Only one team chose to ride the bikes, Brendan and Nicole. Nicole spazzed out halfway down, threw a total tantrum. They had to do the luge instead. I'm glad they didn't win, a couple of flakes, I hated them. They also went to Sunshine, my favourite ski hill. Cool.

Finished 24

I finished watching 24 this weekend. It was very good, although I did have a couple problems with it. I wasn't even sure I would like this show when I bought it, but it turned out to be one of the best purchases I've made as far as TV series on DVD. Was never a big fan of Kiefer Sutherland either, but he was excellent in this show, couldn't see any other actor playing Jack Bauer. Looked into purchasing the second season but it cost $65 right now, think I'll wait until it goes on sale. The one problem I had with the DVD set was the lack of features, no commentary tracks, just an alternate ending and an intro with Kiefer. The picture quality was very good though, in widescreen no less, which is unusual for a TV show.

*** spoilers in the extended entry ***

The sequence where Terry evades the safe house killer, then stops the car to go see if the killer is coming back. The car falls off a cliff about ten feet and explodes into a massive fireball, presumably killing Kim, causing Terry to collapse and then have instant amnesia.

This was very ridiculous to say the least and it was pretty hard to maintain my "suspension of disbelief" at this point. I can see why the writers did it, to seperate the mother and daughter, so Kim could go see Rick and Terry would meet up with her ex. But still, it was so unbelievable, they should have tried some other way to do it. They did reveal that Kim had survived the crash very quickly afterwards [like anybody believed she was dead in the first place!] and Terry recovered her full memory within the following episode as well.

The Serbian agents seemed way too organized in comparison to the CTU agents, who were much less together and riddled with enemy operatives. Kim gets kidnapped again! And the revelation of the second mole, Serena, was kind of hard to swallow. Seemed like she spent all this time helping Jack, you would think an enemy agent would just have let him get killed much earlier on.

Apparently, only 13 episodes were ordered when the series was first green-lighted, so they kind of wrapped up the initial storyline in those first episodes. When they got the order for the full 24, then they had this second storyline develop for the last 11 eps, which kind of fractured the season into two halves. And the second half seemed a bit weaker. Although it was nice to see Lou Diamond Phillips and Dennis Hopper guest star.

And what happened to all the secondary characters? Milo seemed to be at Jack's side every two minutes when Palmer was at CTU, but pretty well disappeared completely after that. And Jack's replacement, Alberta, she makes like she's going to kick ass and take over, change everything, then boom, she's gone. Maybe they make return appearances in season two?

I'm glad they went with the "unhappy ending", it worked much better than the alternate "happy" ending. Can't wait to get the second season dvd. And season three and eventually four as I've heard they've been renewed for a fourth season.

Rube was in a movie!

I tried watching a DVD I picked up today [Hellboy] after work, but I was too tired and had to crash out for awhile. When I woke up, the TV was on [Movie Central] and I instantly recognized Mandy Patinkin's voice, who plays Rube on Dead Like Me. At first I thought it was a repeat of DLM, but then I realized it wasn't cause he was much younger [more hair] and he was talking to Kelly McGillis. It was a 1988 movie, The House on Caroll Street. But the funny thing is, he says the line "Be sure your reach doesn't exceed your grasp", which is exactly what he said to George on an episode of DLM I watched the other night! I wonder how many other lines from the cast's previous movies they've inserted into the show? Watching his scene in this movie, he's so intense, so direct and scarily intelligent, great actor, got to track down some more of his movies. :)

And I guess his character's name on DLM comes from Rube Goldberg, the guy who drew all these weird, convoluted inventions. The deaths on DLM happen in the same way where one thing leads to another, eventually ending in someone's grisly death. The character Delores Herbig probably comes from Ellen Muth's first movie role, Delores Claiborne. I'm sure there's more, it'll be fun digging this stuff up.

Future Shop Sale

Looks like Future Shop is selling season one DVD's of many television series for dirt cheap. Angel - $32.99. Buffy - $17.99. 24 - $28.99. Firefly - $25.99. Family Guy - $22.99. X-files - $49.99. Mmmm, very tempting stuff.

Dead Like Me

I want to tear your skin off, make pyjamas out of them and wear them to bed. George

I haven't seen all of season one of this series, just the odd episode here and there. But I just re-watched season two's premiere [Send in the Clown] after seeing it this Monday [didn't plan on re-watching it, it just came on and I kinda got sucked in] and I've got to say, this is the best show on television right now, IMHO. Pretty damn funny, just dripping with sarcasm and very demented humour. From what I've seen, they were just finding their way in the first season but, if the first episode is any indication, they seem to have hit their stride. Good shit. Apparently, the first five episodes are floating around on the net. It's a Showtime show if you're American, Movie Central is showing it almost every night here in Canada. Actually, looks like they've shown the entire first season this month. Bummer, I missed almost all of 'em.

And what's with Showtime? When I try to access any of their pages, I get this:

We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States.

WTF? The show is filmed in Vancouver, BC, Canada for fuck's sake. And I can access their site using a US proxy, so there. >:)

TWOP Dead Like Me Forum

Da Vinci's Inquest

This Canadian crime drama has been around for six years now, but I never sat down and really watched it till the other night, and damn, it's pretty good! One of the few shows I'm going to try and watch on a regular basis now. Tuesdays @ 9:00pm on CBC.
Da Vinci's Inquest

Epic Hockey

The CBC just played Faith No More's Epic in their intro to tonight's hockey game, so cool. They showed Nemo's infamous hit during the line "It's in your face but you can't grab it". Very funny, in a sick, twisted kind of way. In honour of Darryl Sutter, I've added AC/DC's Bad Boy Boogie to my radio blog. ;)

It's Playtime!

I woke up with this song [and images] in my head this morning. Make it stop, please.

Jerry Orbach leaving L&O

Law & Order without Lenny Briscoe? Hard to believe, the guy's been there forever.

Wonderfalls #3

Just finished watching the third episode of Wonderfalls. [Penguin?] Wow, was it bad! The story sucked, the editing was bad, the acting, everything was just horrible! Brutal. It did have a few good one-liners, but everything that wasn't a one-liner just fell flat. A lot of people hate the boyfriend, Eric. I didn't care for him, but he never really bothered me before. Now you can count me in the hater camp. He had a much bigger role in this episode, so his presence wasn't so easy to ignore. He is just so irritating, he seems like he's on the verge of falling asleep all the time, slurring out his lines in the most uninvolving way. It's like "I don't even care what you're saying, why are you saying it? Why are you even here?". He reminds me of Riley on Buffy, just doesn't work. And his haircut, isn't that what we used to call a "bowl cut" when we were kids? And his sparse wannabe beard, ack! If you can't grow a decent beard, why even bother? Just shave the damn thing off and be done with it. The brother also got more face time, and it brought the show down another notch. Her family revealing that they're a bunch of religious cultists didn't help matters much either. The worst thing about tonight's show was that it wasn't even funny. It was actually painful to watch. And the way it ended, ugh! Totally manipulative, awkward, forced. The way the father and daughter smiled at each other, screamed fake, should have been left on the cutting room floor. Along with the other 39 minutes of this turkey.

I'll watch again next week, just because the first two episodes showed so much promise. But if they keep going down the same road as this one, I'm outta here. They're changing it's slot from Fridays to Thursdays. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

In other TV happenings, this week's Law & Order:CI is supposed to be a new episode and Sarah Michelle Gellar is guesting on The Simpsons, both this Sunday. Hopefully not at the same time. And what the hell is happening with Angel? Christ, first they cancel the show, then they stop airing any EP's, new or old, for three weeks. All we get is double Smallvilles. Should I even bother anymore? Or just wait for the DVDs?

Wonderfalls

As somebody who hates, I mean hates, Joan of Arcadia, I had my doubts whether I'd like this new series that has drawn a lot of comparisons to that wretched show. But the ads made it look interesting and the critics seem to like it, so I decided to check it out when they repeated the series pilot on Thursday.

I've only seen bits and pieces of Dead Like Me, but this series was created by the same guy [Bryan Fuller] and has the same kind of dark, twisted humour. Todd Holland [Malcolm in the Middle, My So Called Life] and Tim Minear [X-files, Angel, Firefly] are also involved. Pretty impressive, but how did the show stand up? Pretty good, actually. The lead actress, Caroline Dhavernas, plays the sardonic slacker Jaye Tyler perfectly. The other great thing was the dialogue, very funny, a lot of dry, witty humour. Very much like Buffy, maybe even a little darker. I won't quote any of it here and spoil it for you, but it's definately memorable. The pilot did lose a little steam in the second half, it seemed to try a little too hard to tie up loose ends and the story seemed a little scattershot. But I think that's a little understandable as the series pilot has to introduce all the character's and tell some kind of story at the same time.

So while I liked the pilot, I couldn't say I was hooked. Then I caught the second episode last night about Binky, the psy-psy-psycho stalker. This entry had a much more cohesive story, much better flow to it than the pilot. And they managed to keep the same level of sarcastic humour going as in the debut. The whole "crazy chick talking to tchotchkes" didn't really get played up much either, which was encouraging as it shows that they aren't going to rely on that gimmick to carry the show. This episode was still very much a stand alone, I hope they have a bit of a story arch that carries over from ep to ep. I'm rather partial to that kind of thing. And yes, now I'm hooked, it's a pretty good show. I just hope FOX gives it a chance, I guess the numbers for the pilot weren't that great and the Friday night slot they have it in is not the best. Whatever, it deserves a chance.

TWOP thread with all the good quotes.

The Universe is shrinking!

Anderson Cooper [CNN] just anounced that scientists have discovered the furthest object from us in the universe, a planetoid beyond the orbit of Pluto...

Evil Fred

Fred looks hot when she's evil!

You're a wee li'l puppet man!

Today, Disney bought the muppet characters from the Hensons. Coincidentally, tonight's episode of Angel, Smile Time, is about...

A very good episode, I couldn't stop laughing at how preposterous the premise was, and yet they pulled it off. I think the best Buffy/Angel episodes are the ones where they go out on a limb and try something different. The Space Channel [Canada] replays new episodes on Mondays if you missed it. I can't believe they're cancelling Angel after this season, it's the only show I actually make an effort to watch every week. :(

Boobygate

I saw Janet Jackson's booby, I saw Janet Jackson's booby! Woohoo!

Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. Ha. It's funny how the CBC showed the 'wardrobe malfunction' uncensored, and you can really see how insignificant and silly this whole thing is, whereas the American news clips have her breast blurred out or pixellated, and it seems so much more enticing, like 'what am I missing' type of thing. FTC chairman Michael Powell called it "classless, crass and deplorable". Yes, that booby was deplorable. Deplorable I tell you! Oh brother, whatever. So if JJ hadn't flashed her boob, then the halftime show would have been A-OK? The cheerleaders ripping off their miniskirts, Nelly grabbing his crotch, Kid Rock still existing, all of this would have been just hunkydorey as long as Janet kept that evil nipple covered, dammit.

Cheering the Losers

I'm beginning to hate sports, every team I root for has lost lately. First the Flames lose to the Canucks on Saturday, 3-1. They haven't looked too good their last few games, plus they lost their best goalie to an injury. Then on Sunday, the Seahawks lost a nailbiter to the Packers in overtime on an interception. It was a good game but I felt bad for Hasselbeck. After winning the coin toss going into overtime, he chose to receive the ball, adding "and we're gonna score!". Unfortunately, his prediction never came to pass. Oh well, better luck next year guys. And today, at the World Juniors Hockey Championships, it was the USA against Canada. We were up 3-1 in the third period, but the US faught back to tie it. Marc-Andre Fleury [Canada's goalie] then tried to clear the puck, but it bounced off his own player right back into the net! What a way to lose the tournament. Maybe I should bet against the teams I cheer for, like Pete Rose.

OK, the Flames are up 5-0 over the Rangers in the third, so I guess there's still hope for them. ;)

Buffy Marathon

Space, Canadian sci-fi channel, is having a Buffy marathon on Boxing Day. They're showing the last 2 episodes of season six on Christmas day and then the entire 22 episodes of season seven from midnight on till 9pm. And then the theatrical film. Holy crap, that's 26 hours of Buffy! I haven't seen much of season seven, so I might give it a shot.

To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood and then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just going to kill you. Why am I still talking to you?

Heritage Classic

The Globe and Mail has some interesting facts and figures on today's hockey game. It'll be fun watching those overpaid, pampered NHL primadonnas freeze their butts off while I'm inside warm and cozy. :) Actually, I'm looking forward to this, should be a pretty cool, unique event. Guy Lafleur's Canadiens vs. Wayne Gretzky's Oilers, it's one of those fantasy games that's actually going to take place.

If You Freeze It, They Will Come: Edmonton is cold during November, but Heritage Classic tickets were red-hot. The Oilers received more than 700,000 entries - some from as far away as China, Finland and Britain - in a lottery for the opportunity to purchase tickets. In fact, an estimated 100,000 more were received after the entry deadline. How hard are tickets to come by? Wayne Gretzky's mom had to call her son to get a pair.

Burning Leafs

Watching the Toronto-Philadelphia hockey game. I hate Toronto so I only really enjoy watching their games when they lose. The score is 7-1 for Philly. Hehe. Good game. The TO fans are booing them now. Cool. I hate Pat Quinn. I hate Tie Domi, Darcy Tucker. I liked Gary Roberts before he became a Leaf, but now I hate him. They suck.

Angel

I thought the season opener [Angel] was great, but last weeks episode was rather lackluster. Then this weeks installment was not bad, not bad at all. They introduced a new character, Nina, a hot lycanthropic babe who might turn out to be Angel's love interest for the season. Spike's character didn't do much in this one, but it looks like next week is going to be a "Spike" centered episode, promising graphic images [?] and partial nudity. Woohoo! Then again, it'll probably be Spike pulling a Harvey Keitel.

And last week's episode pulled in 5.1 million viewers, up 21% over last year's second episode. Cool, maybe there'll be a sixth season.

A "I'm a monster too."
N "Like a... Frankenstein?"
A "What?! No!"

Angel Premiere

I just watched the season premiere of Angel [Conviction] and I must say it was pretty entertaining. I've just started watching this series on Space [they have started playing it nightly from the very begining] so I still have a lot of catching up to do. Heck, they just brought in Wesley last week so most of the major characters have yet to be introduced.

*** slight spoilers follow ***

If you were hoping to see a lot of Spike in this episode, you'll be sorely disappointed. He's almost completely AWOL.

The return of Harmony was handled well, very funny back and forth banter with Angel. I think she'll be a great addition to the show, filling the void left by Cordelia. Speaking of Cordelia, I was glad they mentioned her instead of pretending that she never existed. After all, her and Harmony were best buds in high school. Hopefully they'll have Charisma Carpenter back on the show sometime to tie up the loose ends left by her departure.

The scene with Mr. Spanky was priceless. I can just imagine DB reading the script and getting to that last line. "I have to say what?!"

And the long, unbroken opening shot [after the intro teaser] touring the Wolfram & Hart offices was pretty cool. Nice camerawork.

The premise of the Angel crew controlling Wolfram & Hart while trying to manage the 'lesser of two evils' dichotomy should make for a very interesting and entertaining season. Plus the addition of Spike and Harmony, and hopefully some other exBtVS people. I don't know how good the earlier seasons were, but I think this one's looking like a winner. Much better than Buffy season 7, which I haven't seen in its entirety, but what I have seen wasn't terribly impressive.

From today's Calgary Sun article on the Angel premiere:
That said, Boreanaz does have a suggestion on how the series should end. "I think Angel should just become human and go walk outside into the sun and then get hit by a bus. That'd be funny, but I don't think it'd go over too well."

Infinite Secrets

I watched tonight's NOVA episode dealing with the ancient mathematician Archimedes and a long lost copy of his journal. Archimedes was way, way ahead of his time, so much so that our world could have been very different if his ideas had survived intact from so long ago. And the journey of his manuscript is a story in of itself, very interesting stuff. How could a Roman soldier be so stupid as to kill this great man? And then some monk overwrites his masterpiece to make a prayer book? It boggles the mind.

The recent discovery of a 1,000-year-old book brimming with priceless mathematical texts by the Greek mathematician Archimedes offers scholars new insights into old equations.

Survivor Contestants

Interesting details about the contestants in the current Survivor at the smoking gun. Oh that Christa, what a wacko!

"I want meth in LA or OC?" Her note asked, "where I can hook up w/ some meth in Los Angeles or Orange County...and how and who do you know to ask about this shit?"

TV

I was reading about a season 2 episode of Angel, which just came out on DVD, called "Are you now, or have you ever been..." and that title sounded like the title of tonight's episode of Without a Trace. Sure enough, that's what it was. Very strange.

I was wondering where that phrase "Are you now, or have you ever been.." came from. At first I thought it was just some common saying, but when I thought about it, nobody says that dammit. Then I thought it was something cops ask suspects. Then I realized it's what they asked people during the MacCarthy-era communist witch-hunts. "Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the communist party..." Wooh, I feel better now. Makes sense, the Without a Trace episode was about nailing people using the war on terrorism as cover, amongst other things. Well kinda, more like the fallout after an innocent Saudi man gets killed because they thought he was a terrorist and finding somebody, anybody, to take the fall for it. Good show.

Don't know what the Angel episode is about. I didn't like Angel very much the first time I saw it. In fact I hated it, but I watched a few more episodes because Joss Whedon is at the helm and Buffy was such a great show. I watched the one where everybody falls under the spell of a god that Cordelia spawned. For most of the episode I was really irritated because all the character's were such pushovers for this chick. At the end, when Fred can see that this so-called god is not all she seems but everybody is still ga-ga over her, that's when I "got" where this thing was heading and I have to say it was a pretty good episode. The last one I saw where they go to Vegas to save the green guy was only so-so. Sometimes his moralizing about drugs or in this case, gambling, come across as a little too manipulative and preachy. I would prefer a little more subtlety. Anyway, I like this show enough that I will probably buy the DVDs sometime, when I have more money. It just hasn't hooked me in the same way Buffy did, but still seems like an interesting, worthwhile show.

CNN anchor hits cyclist, gets fine

I always thought this guy was a jerk, but I didn't realize he was this fucked up. What a prick, he should have got a lot more than a fine. But hey, it's just a cyclist and he is a pseudo-celebrity...

Jack acted responsibly in this, as he always has,” said Cafferty’s lawyer, Seth Rosenberg.

A traffic officer and about five pedestrians ran after Cafferty’s car to stop him after the accident, but Cafferty drove through at least two red lights and around other vehicles without stopping, according to a police complaint.Cafferty was dragging the man’s bike underneath his car, police said.

Farrah's Back

I can be her official backside photographer. Oh I give up. I'll post more blurry, indistinct pictures of Farrah's backside tomorrow. Yeah, I know, you can't wait. :(

More

That's Robin Givens in the red track suit chatting with Farrah. You can tell its Farrah, she has her back turned to me. I think she hates me. Bitch. The black guy over to the left is Dorian Haywood. Yeah, him.

Hollywood Wives - First pic

Right above the cab's hood, in the middle, that's little Laura Ingall's head. Really. And over to the right, those blond curls belong to none other than Farrah Fawcett. Uh huh. I told you my pictures suck. And you thought I was kidding. You can see they haven't completed the sign yet. [Waattan?] It usually says Watermark Tower, but they were changing it over to Manhattan East Theater. This was during rehearsal so it didn't matter.

Hollywood Wives - The New Generation

I just checked all the pictures I took and none of them are very good as far as shots of the 'stars' go. What a drag, I could really use a telephoto lens on this thing, it only has a 2X optical zoom.

Hey I just saw an ad for tomorrow's Extra Extra, they're having a spot on Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives. Cool, have to check it out.

Hollywood Wives - The New Generation

• airs on CBS at 9:00 PM Sunday October 19, 2003
  
• Farrah Fawcett - Lissa Roman
  
• Robin Givens - Stella Rossitter
  
• Melissa Gilbert - Taylor Singer
  
• Jack Scalia as Michael Scorsinni
  
• Dorian Haywood
  
• director - Joyce Chopra
  
• writers - Jackie Collins, Nicole Avril
  
• executive producers - Jackie Collins, Renee Valente, Tom Patricia
  

There were rumours Christina Aguilera wanted to be in this movie as well but I didn't see her anywhere today. It was really slow at work so when I saw these people setting up for filming I thought I would hang around and check it out. They did a rehersal thing early in the day and I took some pictures of Farrah and Melissa when this was going on. I didn't know Robin Givens was in this movie as well but after looking at the pictures I took I can see she is in there wearing a red track suit.

They set up 530-8 Avenue SW [the Watermark Tower] as the Manhatten East Theater so I guess the film is set in New York. It was set up with a red carpet and all these funky lights and shit so I guess some kind of movie premiere was supposed to be happening. Farrah shows up in a limo and all these rabid fans freak out when they see her. It was funny when they were filming this because all the extras were spazzing out and the director would yell "Cut, cut!" and the crowd would just keep on freaking out. He would have to yell cut quite a few times before they would finally settle down. Farrah gets out of the limo and walk up the carpet to the main door, shaking fans' hands along the way. Oh yeah, she also blows a kiss at the camera.

And that was basically the whole scene that they filmed while I was still there. When Farrah gets inside the building, she sees Robin Givens being interviewed by a TV crew and they kinda nod at each other, but I didn't see that. The scene with the limo is shot with a crane and a camera from the side. They also did a third shot as a 'first person view' from Farrah's perspective. That Scalia dude accompanies Farrah up the carpet.

After the rehearsal, I had to do some deliveries and when I came back everybody was gone on a break. So I hung out until they started setting up for actually filming the scene. There were a ton of extras showing up for this. I recognized one guy from last year's A Problem with Fear shoot. As all this was going on I was standing behind the director's chair [there were about five chairs there actually] where I could watch the stuff being filmed on a couple monitors. As I was standing there who comes over but Melissa Gilbert, all decked out in a slinky black dress with a little matching black purse. And her hair was made up in these big curls. She looked hot. She sat in Jackie Collins' chair for a short time. It was funny, everybody was rubbernecking, trying to get a glimpse of Farrah, I don't think anybody noticed Melissa sitting there!

That was so cool, wish my camera was working! Then, later on, Robin Givens came over and stood right beside me. I shit you not. That was so weird, I didn't even say hi, I just stood there grinning like an idiot. A little girl came up to her and asked for an autograph, she asked her her name and then after signing, she kissed it so there was lipstick marks on there too. She seemed really nice. Then another chick asked for her autograph, and she obliged. Then after she went to hand it back, the chick insisted she kiss it as well! Yikes! [she did do it] Later I found out the chick didn't even know who she was. Then Robin tried to chat with the crew, but somebody had the nerve to tap her on the shoulder and ask for her autograph. And a line was starting to form of autograph seekers. She got out of there pretty quick after that. Kinda sucked, I was hoping she could have hung out there longer.

The chick who got Robin's autograph went and got another actor's autograph. I asked her who he was and she replied she didn't know. Nobody knew his name but everybody recognized him from TV. Turns out his name is Dorian Haywood, but I couldn't find an entry for him in IMDB. Weird. Then there was some chick who came up and she started asking all these questins. Who is that? What movie is this? She was the type of person who would say the first thing that came into her silly, empty head. Aloud. In her whiny, grating voice. Soon people were drifting away, but I just tried real hard to ignore her. It was cold this morning, but now it's warmer. Finally, she anounced she was leaving and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Around 7:00pm I decided to leave, looked like they were all going for a break anyway. They said they were filming till midnight tho. Never saw Jackie Collins, but everybody was taking turns sitting in her chair. He he. They're filming tomorrow as well but I probably wont be getting any pictures as I think they said they're filming on a roof of some kind. [?]

I'll try to post some pictures tonight. But be warned, they suck.

Hollywood Wives

I hung out on the location set for Hollywood Wives most of the afternoon and my feet are killing me. Here's a video clip from the news. I took a bunch of pictures but then my battery died just when things were getting interesting. Damn! Anyways, I'll post some pics and stuff after I get something to eat.

Big Brother 4

Was watching Big Brother 4 today [hangs head in shame] and the young, sweet Michelle got put up on the chopping block. Her response?

He put me up because I'm the young, sweet innocent one. Well, I'm gonna take a full 360° turn and show him!

Ha, too funny. You go get him, einstein grrrl!

Buffy Marathon

Started watching my shiny, new Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs. Finished the first season already, started on the second one last night. Pretty good show. [I just started watching it; yeah, I know, I'm a little late to the party] It's interesting to see how young they all were when the show began. [It's like a time machine hahhaha!] I like how they carry over ideas from show to show, and from season to season. In season one they have a show where this girl slowly turns invisible because everybody ignores her. Then, in season six [?] they had another episode where Buffy gets invisiblized and they really seem to expand on the concept and have a lot of fun with it. Very cool. Another first season episode has the slayerettes freaking out about a school talent show [because they have no special talents] and putting on a hilariously bad perfomance at the end of the show. Yet, in season six they have the musical episode [once more with feeling?] where the entire cast sings throughout the show, and does it very, very well.

Just a great show, I'm really glad I bought the DVDs. I've been watching the season six episodes on the Space channel as well, so it does get kinda confusing sometimes. Yeah, I'm hooked.

The Buffy Addiction

A while back, the Canadian cable channel Space aquired the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer and they began showing it all the time. I had never watched this show and I kind of resented how it took over the whole schedule, so I kind of boycotted the show just on principle.

Then they had a Buffy marathon on Monday, the Victoria Day holiday.

I had the tv on, not intending to watch anything, just had it on while I did other things. And I had it tuned in to the Buffy marathon. Big mistake. I started watching it a bit. It was the 'best' shows as chosen by the fans. Next thing I know, I've watched like five episodes and I'm totally engrossed in this thing. They chose the musical episode as number one, and I must say, it was pretty good. Number two was one called "Hush", with this freaky ghouls trying to steal people's hearts [literally] and everybody had laryngitis [? they couldn't talk] It was really cool. And funny.

So I'm hooked. I've been watching the show every night since and I'm thinking of collecting the DVDs. The really stupid thing is, the day I got wired on this show, is the day they aired the final episode. So that's it for the series, there won't be any more new shows. Talk about coming late to the party, sheesh.

A PERSON OF INTEREST

Just finished watching the Law & Order: Criminal Intent season finale and man, it was pretty good. Actually, it was a double-header, and the first one was rather run-of-the-mill, but the second one was a doozy. If you like this show at all, you've gotta check it out. It shows a side of the Bobby Goren character that we usually don't get to see. And guest star Olivia d'Abo's character is wickedly evil, geting under the usually unflappable detective's skin. Probably the best episode of this series.

Speaking of Vincent D'Onofrio, I saw him in the movie The Salton Sea recently and wow, he is almost unrecognisable as the extremely sick, twisted meth junkie/dealer Pooh Bear. Very cool movie, awesome actor.

Anaheim vs. Dallas

Watching this hockey game... still! It's going into the fifth overtime period, currently the fourth longest playoff game in history. That's the cool thing about Stanley Cup playoffs, they just keep playing till somebody keels over. No wimpy shoot-outs in this contest! There were a couple bad calls. An obvious icing call was waved off at the last minute, resulting in a Dallas goal. An Anaheim overtime goal was waved off because the net was a couple millimeters off its post. Still, Dallas has been the better team, but the Mighty Ducks' goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere has kept them in this.[60 saves so far] [50 saves for Dallas' Turco]

Petr Sykora scores, Anaheim wins! Cool, I can go to sleep now.